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How many days/weeks/months do you have to run before you feel comfortable saying, “I am a runner?” I started running this past January. It wasn’t a New Year’s resolution or anything -- it was simply something I’d been planning to start for a while (I had, in fact, been talking about it for months), and I’d recently moved to an area where I felt comfortable running outside.
January may not seem like an optimal time of year to begin running outdoors, but the weather was still fairly pleasant in northern Virginia at the time. A few weeks later when it started getting colder, I acquired a pair of running gloves and a stretchy head wrap that covered my ears and kept the wind from rushing in. That, however, has been the extent of any running-specific accessories I’ve bought. No stopwatch; no fancy heart-rate monitor; no special clothes to wick the sweat away from my body. (I already had a pair of running shoes that I got last year...which reminds me, I really need to get a new pair.)
Even though I run, I still hesitate to call myself a runner. I don’t feel like I’ve done enough to deserve that title. I run on sidewalks, and I’m still glad for that 5-10 second break I get sometimes when I have to pause at a stoplight. I’ve never run in a race. (In fact, my older sister started running regularly not long after I did, and she’s already signed up for a 6k that’s taking place next month.)
I don’t have anything against running in a formal setting. I guess I’m just not one of those people who care about their time, like, “I can run a mile in 7 minutes” (or whatever a really good running time might be). I think I’ll probably end up participating in some kind of running event at some point. But I’m not in any rush.
The thing is, right now I run because I enjoy it. The reason I’m not formally training, or striving to increase my time or distance, is because I’m having fun. I really don’t have a desire to go outside for long periods of time and run for miles and miles in preparation for a marathon. I want to keep enjoying this activity for as long as I can, so if that means I go running a few days after work for 45 minutes to clear my head, and sometimes on the weekends, and sometimes just whenever, then that’s what I’ll continue to do.
I've noticed progress, of course. I can run for longer distances now without stopping than I used to be able to. I saw that I was making it home in a shorter period of time, so I extended my running route to include circling around a park. Sometimes I'll even go outside with the sole intention of taking a walk, but suddenly I’ll feel like I’m going too slow and I’ll start running instead. I like when that happens.
I’m not the only one who questions how much they have to run, or how dedicated they have to be, to think of themselves as a runner. I think many people would agree that if you only run a mile every month or so, you might not be qualified to say, "I'm a runner." But what if you never run on a consistent basis, but you have the stamina to go for, say, 10 miles without stopping? Are you a runner then? Or are you just someone who has the ability to run?
Comrade GoGo asks herself these questions, too.
In 2001, I ran 26.2 miles in Chicago at about a 12-mile-per-hour pace. I had trained six long months in New York City for that day in early October.
And still, if you had asked me, I would not have called myself a runner. [...]
I was a runner but I never gave myself credit for any of it. It wasn’t just physical hard work; it was also a major mental and social challenge. [...]
What does it take to be a runner? Well, you have to run, and you have to keep at it. There’s no speed qualifier for that.
Christie says, "Once a runner, always a runner."
I am a runner even though I've only run once in 4 weeks and only a handful of times this entire year. The reason I
